Rumor: Possible iPhone App Sharing Coming

With WWDC 2009 less than a week away, we've lost our minds in anticipation of iPhone Software 3.0 being released to the eager hands of the public. We know the big features that the OS is bringing to the table, including highly anticipated copy & paste, MMS, and system wide Spotlight, and many other bonuses. But it's been brought up recently by AppleInsider that the new OS could also make it possible for users to share their purchased applications with others, which would make trying out apps before purchasing possible.

Businessweek, who cites a person familiar with the technology, has reported that the next software update does, "contain features that, if Apple allows it, will let users share software with each other."

Currently, there is no "trial period" offered in the App Store. Some developers have tried to address this issue by merely offering free or 'lite' versions of their apps that give the potential customer a taste of what the app is like before purchasing the full-featured version.

However, if the potential customer ends up liking the app, they now have to return to the App Store and download the pay version and eventually remove the "lite" version fro their phone. Not exactly an Apple-like experience.

But with the tens of thousands of apps in the App Store, how does one find the good ones? If this new feature is activated, it would be great for friends and family, who will most likely have common interests, to share the good apps with each other. This would filter out the crap apps and focus on the apps that deserve praise. To learn of a new app, obtain it directly, and try it out for a bit can be considered a more streamlined approach to app shopping in the current state of the App Store.

Despite there being 5 betas of the 3.0 software since March, this feature has only been heard of since Wednesday.

Looks like we'll just have to wait to see if anything of this sort will be announced at WWDC on Monday.

You can already share apps with as many iPhones as you own. My wife and I already both have access to the same apps. As long as iTunes is longed into the same account, then the same Apps will be available to all phones.